Illinois Republicans sue over Democrat-drawn remap

July 20, 2011|By Rick Pearson | Clout Street

The state’s top Republican legislative leaders today led the filing of a federal lawsuit challenging a Democratic-drawn remapping of the state’s House and Senate districts, alleging it unfairly discriminates against African Americans and Latinos.

But the lawsuit by Senate GOP leader Christine Radogno of Lemont and House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego, also is a reflection that the new map targets the Republicans to remain out of power in the General Assembly for the next decade.

“The bizarre shapes of several districts…is in furtherance of a deliberate attempt to enhance Democrats’ prospects for re-election and target Republicans to prevent their re-election,” the suit stated. Many districts were intended to “slither across traditional lines in order to place multiple incumbent Republicans into one district," according to the suit.

Republicans say the new map pits 19 House Republican members against other GOP incumbents, or in unfamiliar territory against Democratic lawmakers. The proposal also puts eight Senate Republicans against each other. No Democratic incumbents face a challenge from other sitting Democrats.

Republicans had been expected to contest the redistricting map, which was drawn by the legislature’s Democratic majority and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn last month. The GOP had no input into the mapmaking process and reserved much of their state funding for redistricting to hire lawyers and legal experts.

In a statement, the governor’s office defended the new districts. “This open and transparent process resulted in a map that represents our diverse state and protects the voting rights of minorities,” the statement said.

Redistricting is the once-every-decade process of redrawing legislative boundaries to equalize population in each district after the results of the federal census. But the remapping process also is about political power and the new boundary lines were crafted to keep, if not expand, Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in Springfield.

Also part of the suit are African American and Latino plaintiffs. But the suit was not joined by such civil rights groups as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which typically weighs in when it views that a remap denies appropriate representation and voting opportunities for Latinos.

Elisa Alfonso, Midwest redistricting coordinator for MALDEF, said the group is finishing its own analysis of the Illinois legislative map and will decide afterward what steps it will take. “We still do not agree with the legislative map,” she said.

Alfonso noted the group has been “on record for quite some time” in saying that MALDEF did not believe Democratic mapmakers created enough strong Latino voting-age majority districts and districts that Latino’s could influence.

She said that while MALDEF discussed issues with Republicans, the group was not part of drafting the lawsuit. It could join with the GOP, file its own lawsuit or decide not to challenge the map.

The Radogno-Cross suit alleges the map violates federal Constitutional guarantees as well as federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities. It contends two districts — a west suburban district that includes Maywood and a downstate district that includes East St. Louis — could have been drawn to give blacks of voting age a majority of the population.

It also contends a violation of the federal Voting Rights Act for two districts that it alleges fail to give Latinos a majority voting age population. One of the challenged districts, a C-shaped district, spans from Cicero to Bedford Park. The other challenged district includes Waukegan and Gurnee.

Additionally, the suit contends another six districts were drawn to deny Latinos the ability to influence an election outcome. Latinos gained population in the last decade.

Democrats have said they consider the map fair and in compliance with federal and state voting laws. Republicans argued that a map they proposed would provide greater representation to minorities and would keep more municipalities within single districts. But its map pitted several Democratic incumbents against each other.

Under federal rules, the case goes to a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court.

Republicans also have said they are seeking to challenge the Democrat-drawn reapportionment of the state’s congressional districts, though no lawsuit has been filed.